Sen. Joe Manchin: Dem Calls For Al Franken to Resign ‘Most Hypocritical Thing I’ve Ever Seen’
Sen. Joe Manchin forcefully rebuked his Democratic colleagues’ successful efforts to pressure Sen. Al Franken to resign from the Senate, after a number of women accused him of sexual harassment.
Appearing on Politico’s Off Message podcast, the West Virginia Democrat, who did not call on Franken to resign, spoke harshly about the imbroglio:
“What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats,” Manchin said.
Franken announced he would be resigning from the Senate “in the coming weeks,” in an unapologetic speech earlier this month. That came after an avalanche of his Democratic colleagues called for him to resign as yet another woman came forward to accuse the Minnesota lawmaker of inappropriate behavior.
Though according to Politico, Democrats are regretting their tough line on Franken: “At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment.”
Manchin, one of the few Democratic senators to urge Franken to remain in office until the completion of an ethics investigation, hit Democratic lawmakers who called on Franken to resign — only to hug him on the Senate floor following his resignation speech:
“The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being — and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life. Made me sick,” Manchin said.
“Here’s a man, that all he said [was], ‘Take me through the Ethics Committee. I will live by whatever decision and I will walk away thinking about this opportunity I’ve had while I was here. But you find out if I’m a predator,’” he continued.
Manchin also called on his colleagues to reverse their condemnations and allow for Franken to go through an ethics investigation.
“I hope they have enough guts … and enough conscience and enough heart to say, ‘Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave.’”
“That’s the human and decent thing to do. If they have any decency in them, they’d do that,” Manchin said. “Every one of them that signed for him to go out — including Chuck Schumer — should do that.”
Listen to Manchin’s interview here.
[image via screengrab]
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